


Hint of Resurrection

by blynninja



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: F/M, Feelings, Introspection, Natsu learns some things, Other, Post-Tártaros, Reunions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-29
Updated: 2020-10-29
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:40:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,986
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27265126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blynninja/pseuds/blynninja
Summary: Some time after Natsu returns from his year away and the guild begins to reform, he realizes some things about Tartaros and Lucy's connection with her keys.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 21





	Hint of Resurrection

**Author's Note:**

> I was rereading* the 440-ish chapters (end of Tartaros Arc) and had a thought.  
> A bit AU to how the rest of the chapters actually go.
> 
> *I started this five years ago and gave up on it. But I recently started rewatching FT and had some feels and am revisiting some of what I started way back when.

He had cried when Igneel had disappeared, that was for sure.

But he hadn’t stopped to consider what the others had been going through at the same time.

He had been so determined to get stronger that he hadn’t even thought about what the others’ reactions would be to him up and leaving.

And finding out the guild had disbanded… well, that was about the worst news he’d heard all year.

Fairy Tail couldn’t be done.

It was his family.

He needed the guild.

It was the whole reason he’d gone off on his own in the first place: to become strong enough to keep them all safe.

But he hadn’t.

In his year away, their lives had been changed anyway.

And watching Lucy fumble with her key ring drove that point home.

“Luce?” he asked quietly, stepping closer to get a better look at her.

His friend was trembling, her fingers pausing on the key that he recognized as the Water Bearer’s.

But it wasn’t a whole key. It had been broken at some point, only the topmost symbol remaining.

“Lucy, what happened?” he croaked, knowing that despite all of the shouting matches and near-death experiences, Lucy and Aquarius had been good friends. 

A broken key, particularly a broken Zodiac key, had to have been difficult on Lucy, who treasured each of her spirits no matter their differences.

When Lucy didn’t answer, Natsu stepped still closer, reaching out to her.

“Who broke Aquarius’s key? How is that even possible? Do I need to beat someone up for you?” he babbled, wanting desperately for Lucy to say something, anything, to break the awkward silence.

He hated it when she cried, and he needed to fix it.

“I…” Lucy sniffed, turning away from him, which stung. “I did.”

Natsu blinked.

“What?”

“During the battle with Tartaros,” Lucy wheezed, folding in on herself with the memory.

Natsu tried to remember what had happened that day on the Cube, but all that came back was being swallowed by Mard Geer’s Alegria attack, and then being freed from it.

_“Somehow I get the feeling that you just saved our asses, Lucy.”_

What had she done to save them? He hadn’t even asked. There hadn’t been time, with everything else going on.

“What happened, Luce?” he asked softly, frowning.

“I had to!” she wailed then, clutching the key to herself even as she stepped backward into him.

“To save all of you, I had to…”

She cut herself off with a sob, and Natsu sighed, glancing at a worried Happy, hovering a few feet away.

Gently, Natsu turned Lucy around, hugging her properly and stroking her hair in a way he hoped was comforting.

She bawled into his jacket, clutching the fabric tightly as she let out emotions that had probably been building up for a year.

“Lucy…” Happy whined sadly, settling himself on Lucy’s shoulder and snuggling as close as the precarious perch would allow him.

Natsu didn’t know how much time had passed when Lucy finally stopped crying, but it felt like forever before she raised her head and wiped at her face, staring at the ground.

“I had to summon the Celestial Spirit King,” she explained then, still teary-eyed, and Natsu blinked, eyebrows rising.

“Luce, that’s _amazing_! How did you--?”

Lucy gripped Aquarius’s broken key more tightly and Natsu felt his eyes bulge out of his face as his jaw dropped.

“I had to destroy a Zodiac key,” Lucy said with a scowl. “And Aquarius insisted it had to be hers.”

She let out a quick sob then, and Happy curled his tail around her arm, trying to help.

Natsu suddenly remembered the markings on Lucy’s outfit after they had been saved from Alegria. The top of her bikini had looked so familiar, and now he knew why.

“Your star dresses,” he breathed, each one she’d used so far appearing in his head.

“The Spirit King gave me Aquarius’s magic,” Lucy said quietly, staring at Happy’s tail. “And now I can use more than just hers.”

Natsu fell silent then, his hands still at her back. He could still feel her trembling, and it pulled at his heart in a way her tears hadn’t. When Lucy cried, he got angry, and tried to beat up the person who had made her cry. But when the tears were done and she had nothing left but shaking, he didn’t know what to do.

“I think I’d rather have Aquarius back,” Lucy choked out around another sob, and fresh tears dripped off of her face.

“Oh, Luce,” he sighed, pulling her close again as Happy wordlessly relocated himself to the top of her head.

“She was annoying, and mean, and she didn’t like me very much,” Lucy continued between sobs, “but she was my first spirit! My first friend!”

The crying started back up, full force, then, and a part of Natsu wanted to go to the Spirit World and beat Aquarius into sushi for putting Lucy through so much pain.

But another part, the part of him that had actually learned something from his time in the wilderness, knew that that wasn’t going to solve anything, and that he (regrettably) couldn’t go back and change the past.

And really, what could have been done?

The Celestial Spirit King had apparently been their only option, and if Aquarius had insisted it be her key that Lucy break, there had to have been a good reason.

And really, for all the crap that Aquarius had put Lucy through in their partnership, he knew that the Water Bearer had cared for Lucy, deep down.

Still…

“Loke! Get your ass out here!” Natsu barked then, not caring that he wasn’t the Lion’s contracted wizard.

“Natsu?” Lucy sniffed, tipping her head curiously.

There was a flash of light, and then the suave spirit was before them, frowning.

“Are you making Lucy cry, Natsu? Because I will—”

“It wasn’t me, it was Aquarius’s fault, you idiot!” Natsu interrupted, scowling.

Loke paused, glancing at Lucy, who still had the broken key in her hands, and the spirit exhaled heavily.

“Oh.”

“ _Oh_???” Natsu demanded, outraged. “That’s all you’ve got, is _‘oh’_?!”

Loke pinched the bridge of his nose and Lucy tried to shove away, but Natsu wasn’t letting her go that easily.

“Tell me what happened,” he demanded of the spirit. “I know you must have been there, at least for some of it.”

The Lion spirit was one of Lucy’s strongest, so she must have summoned him at some point.

Loke sighed, shrugging. “You’re right, I was there for some of it.”

He glanced almost apologetically at Lucy and Natsu held her tighter.

“Lucy had summoned both me and Virgo to fight one of the demons,” Loke began. “The one named Jackal showed up, and Lucy tried to fight him herself, but it wasn’t really working—he was too strong… and then Lucy decided to summon Aquarius.”

Natsu forced himself to inhale, glancing at Lucy, who was trembling again. _Three spirits at once?_ That must have taken a huge toll on her.

“We tried to tell her not to, but she was determined,” Loke continued, raising an eyebrow. “Aquarius tried to defeat Jackal, but he hit her anyway, and then he got me and Virgo. We had to go back to our world.”

Loke frowned. “And before long I felt Aquarius’s connection shift, and she was back in our world, cursing Lucy and bawling like a baby.”

He grinned then, though Natsu could tell it was half-hearted, and continued, “I knew her key had been broken, and she said Lucy had summoned the King.”

“But…” Natsu began, and Loke explained, “To summon the King, there must be a strong bond between spirit and wizard. A bond of mutual trust. Otherwise, breaking the spirit’s key is pointless.”

Natsu frowned. Well, that explained that part. But…

“Why can’t we just fix the key?” he asked simply, annoyed at the look on Loke’s face.

“You can’t just _fix_ a Zodiac key!” the Lion cried, scandalized.

“Why not? Can’t we just have Mustache-Face create a new one or something?”

Loke pinched his nose again—Natsu was ready to break that stupid nose and those stupid glasses—and Lucy peered at him curiously.

“What? Wasn’t he the one who created them in the first place? Can’t he just make a new one? Princess Hisui made the ones that we used when you guys all went crazy, right? Can’t we just make Aquarius a new key? Or go with you to the Spirit World when we want to see her?” Natsu explained, jumbling it all together to get it out. 

“You know very well that you are only allowed to the Spirit World on _incredibly_ special occasions!” Loke reminded him hotly, scowling.

“Well, seeing Aquarius would be pretty damn special to Lucy, don’t you think?” he shot back, his scowl rivaling the Lion’s.

Small hands curled around his arms, but Natsu paid them no mind, glowering at Loke, who held his gaze determinedly.

“Natsu, please,” Lucy said quietly, gripping his arms tighter. “It’s okay—”

“It’s NOT okay!” he argued, caught off guard by his own emotion. “You’re sad, and you’ve _been_ sad for _a year_ , and I can’t _fix it_ , and I wasn’t here for you, and it’s NOT OKAY.”

Lucy blinked at him, tears threatening to spill over again, and Natsu cursed. Now _he_ was the one making her cry. He hated himself.

“Aw, geez, I’m sorry, Luce, I didn’t mean to make you cry!”

“Should I beat him up for you, Lucy?” Loke asked, cracking his knuckles as Lucy waved a hand at him. 

“You can go, Loke,” she assured him, and Loke sighed dramatically before poofing away.

Lucy inhaled deeply, clutching his arms still, and Natsu blinked, glancing down.

“It’s not okay,” he repeated quietly, sliding his arms through Lucy’s grip until he could hold her hands, absently stroking her guild mark with his thumb.

“I should have been here.”

“Aye!” Happy chirped sadly from Lucy’s shoulder, having re-perched himself there after Loke's appearance.

“You had a lot on your mind,” Lucy reminded him, and he cringed.

“That wasn’t an excuse to just _leave_ , though,” he sighed, realizing it now. “I was mad about Igneel, and I was mad at myself for not being strong enough, and I needed to do something. But I should have talked to someone first instead of just running away like I did.”

Lucy stepped into him, her fingers tightening around his, as she whispered, “You’re here now.”

“Aye!” Happy cried, wrapping his paws as far as they would go around Lucy’s neck.

Natsu sighed.

He was. He was here now, and he could help now.

“Virgo?” he tried cautiously, squinting as the spirit materialized.

“You called, Prince?”

“Yeah, thanks. Could you… Could you tell Loke I’m sorry I yelled at him? And tell Aquarius…”

Natsu swallowed around the lump in his throat, forcing the words out.

“Tell Aquarius ‘thank you,’ for taking care of Lucy, and for saving all of us.”

Virgo blinked as Lucy wailed again, clinging so hard he was afraid she’d crush his fingers.

“Do you wish to punish me, Princess?” Virgo asked curiously, tilting her head.

“No,” Lucy sniffed. “You can go, Virgo, thank you.”

“Very well!” Virgo chirped, and disappeared.

“Natsu,” Lucy said quietly, the word muffled further by the fact her face was pressed into his coat.

“Luce?” he asked, frowning a little.

“I’m glad you’re back,” Lucy sighed, her head falling against his chest and her grip on his hands loosening as she fell asleep.

Natsu smiled then, exchanging a look with Happy, who left Lucy’s shoulder and settled himself near her pillow as Natsu carried her carefully to her bed, setting her down gently and pulling the blankets over her.

“Me too, Luce,” he murmured as he brushed the hair out of her face.

“Me too.”

**Author's Note:**

> "Every parting gives a foretaste of death; every reunion a hint of the resurrection."  
> Arthur Shopenhauer
> 
> Originally I had this set in Crocus, before they went to reform the guild. But then I switched it to sometime after they started finding everybody, and they’re back in Magnolia. I wanted a reason for Natsu to picture more than just Aquarius’s Star Dress, I guess?? Idk. Whatevs.  
> Pretend Natsu just showed up at Lucy’s apartment while she’s having an emotional moment with her keys. Idk.


End file.
